About Becoming My Ex-Husband's Mistress - Chapter 55

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 55. The Secret of Birth
‘What kind of person is he? If he was going to act like this, why did he make me wait, and why summon me to the Reception Room in the first place?’
Melissa Bilsty felt utterly humiliated. Her lips even twitched involuntarily.
‘He’s truly strange. Is he mad?’
It seemed unlikely that I would secure the votes of the Grand Duke and his associates at the Royal Elegance Contest taking place in four days.
‘What should I do? I wanted to gather more votes.’
That was when Anne appeared from the garden direction, holding pruning shears and several ranunculus flowers.
The sight of her ignited my fury.
I felt I would feel better if I slapped her cheek, so I strode forward with eyes wide open, and Anne’s eyes widened in response.
“Oh, Miss Melissa Bilsty!”
Anne quickly set the pruning shears down on the garden floor and bowed respectfully to me.
“I apologize for my rudeness earlier.”
Her demeanor was quite different from before, so I observed Anne carefully. She was smiling kindly, but her pupils trembled.
‘Did she get scolded for delivering the message late?’
I glanced around to see if anyone was watching me.
No one was there.
“What’s your name?”
At my question, Anne clasped her hands respectfully in front of her.
“I am Anne, the head maid.”
“Your attitude is different from before?”
“Because you are an honored guest of the Grand Duke, Miss Melissa Bilsty.”
‘Oh, how interesting.’
The maid before me seemed terrified, completely unaware that Luderne Sellen had appeared late and immediately sent me away.
“Did you have an enjoyable tea time?”
I felt like testing her.
“He was so attentive. I was only able to spend a brief moment with him since he was so busy, but it was wonderful.”
As I spoke, I lifted the corners of my mouth into a smile.
“By the way, you know I’ve been lenient with you, don’t you? While I was having tea with the Grand Duke, I thought countless times about reporting the rudeness you committed, but I held back.”
Anne’s pupils shook dramatically.
‘That’s right!’
I licked my lips with relish.
“From now on, listen carefully to what I say. You know who I am, don’t you?”
At my sharp-toned words, Anne recalled a certain moment.
“You must listen to me, the head maid, if you want to work here. Understand? If you don’t want to become useless waste, do exactly as I tell you.”
The nuance was similar to what she had said to Lesha in the past.
“The moment even one word comes from my mouth that goes against you, you’ll be out on the streets. Or perhaps you’ll be dismissed in disgrace, return to your estate, and disappear without a trace?”
No matter how I listened to it, it was a threat to establish dominance. Anne, having done similar things to Lesha, understood well.
Still, I wondered if things would really go as I said.
But then I put force into my voice.
“If you don’t believe me, go straight to the Grand Duke and ask. Ask if it’s really okay that you treated Melissa Bilsty, the King’s lover, so coldly.”
Oh no!
Anne realized with a jolt what she had carelessly overlooked.
There was a vast difference between Melissa Bilsty and me.
I was a commoner and head maid, but she was a noblewoman and the Grand Duke’s mistress.
Moreover, it seemed Luderne Sellen thought differently about it too, so our positions were fundamentally different from the start.
Ultimately, Anne, gripped by fear, pleaded with Melissa Bilsty.
“I truly didn’t know what relationship you had with the Grand Duke. I’ll do whatever you ask, so please forgive me.”
“Do whatever I ask?”
“Yes.”
“When do you have a day off?”
“Tomorrow is my day off.”
Melissa Bilsty glanced around, then let out a low chuckle.
“Then come to the casino on the basement first floor of Raber Salon tomorrow at eleven in the morning. Don’t tell anyone. I want a proper apology, and there’s something important we need to discuss over tea.”
Anne readily agreed.
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Melissa Bilsty left Luderne Sellen’s Residence.
After walking about a hundred meters, she unfurled her fan to conceal the smile that naturally bloomed on her face.
‘I wonder if she knows what kind of place Raber Salon really is.’
As Melissa Bilsty made the appointment, what came to mind was the fourth floor of Raber Salon.
A place of extraterritorial privilege where nobles faced no punishment for whatever they did to the weak.
Melissa Bilsty knew there was a secret passage from the basement first floor leading to the fourth floor.
Moreover, at eleven in the morning, the casino would have almost no guests, and it was also a time when the secret passage and the fourth floor—where debauched nobles lingered—would be empty.
They would all be passed out from last night’s revelries.
Unlike her, Anne would have no information about Raber Salon. Since she called the basement first floor a casino, Anne would perceive it as such.
For commoners, a salon was simply a place where noble ladies gathered for social discourse.
* * *
“As I’ve said before, you lack foresight.”
Luderne Sellen’s brow furrowed as he faced Brissel Mohr across the study desk.
Brissel Mohr hesitated before finally mustering the courage to speak.
“Your Highness, please reconsider once more.”
“Aren’t all the noble ladies you’ve brought as marriage candidates either lapdogs of Eclite or Zerox?”
“Your Highness, that language is harsh.”
On Luderne Sellen’s desk lay ten portrait paintings of noble ladies, each about the size of an A4 sheet, arranged in a row.
It had been three weeks since Priscilla departed and Luderne Sellen himself left Heril Island to settle in the Capital.
Imperial Prince Eclite of the Doerban Empire and King Zerox of Arde, interpreting Luderne Sellen’s settlement in the Capital in their own ways, had each sent candidates for Grand Duchess.
“Of course, these are candidates both sides have selected with their own political calculations in mind. However, this time the candidates being reviewed do appear promising. There are even ladies from houses that could strengthen the Grand Duke’s political position.”
At Brissel Mohr’s renewed request, Luderne Sellen’s gaze returned to the desk.
He recalled what the Emperor had told him.
“Such a coincidence hardly exists. We both had only recently ascended the throne. Our power was unstable, so we were disguised as commoners and traveling in secret… and then we met in a tavern in the Border Region. Both of us were drunk, our eyes slightly clouded, but we were drawn to each other powerfully. Unbelievably so.”
This was the truth about my biological parents, Flint and Hilda Arde, which I had learned when captured as a prisoner of war and meeting the Emperor face to face.
“Even drunk, I meant every word. I thought she was a commoner, so I intended to bring her into the palace as a concubine, grant her a title, and shower her with favor. The reason I thought of her as a concubine was… because concubines didn’t have to work. But the Divine One has quite the sense of humor. When I sobered up the next morning, I discovered she was Hilda Arde.”
Flint’s position was also Hilda Arde’s position.
How must she have felt, waking that morning to discover the man she’d spent the night with was the Emperor of the Doerban Empire?
Though they later learned each other’s true identities, the lingering impression remained profound.
So Flint proposed that Hilda Arde become his Empress.
But she refused the proposal.
Her place was on the throne of Arde, she said. She had never considered any other life.
Instead, she boldly demanded that he come to her nation as her consort.
Yet whether Empress or consort, both sides were entangled in complex political considerations at the time.
Since neither option was feasible, the two ultimately parted ways, leaving only the memory of that single night.
Six months later, Flint took an Empress.
It was a political decision.
“I don’t know what Hilda Arde felt when I held the state wedding. She claimed illness and sent her Foreign Minister in her stead to my invitation. But when I witnessed Hilda Arde accepting the consort’s credentials herself, my heart felt as though it were being torn to shreds.”
That was when he realized his love for Hilda Arde was no ordinary affection.
Not long after, he heard whispers circulating discreetly at a banquet.
That Hilda Arde had given birth in secret.
The timing suggested the child was his.
After attending consecutive celebration banquets that lasted days, Flint finally confronted Hilda Arde and demanded the truth.
Hilda Arde admitted she had borne a child, but insisted the father was not Flint.
Thus she concealed the child.
Yet her wavering eyes betrayed her, so Flint secretly tracked down the child’s whereabouts.
What he found was a mansion not far from the Royal Palace.
Infiltrating alone to confirm, the infant’s face bore an unmistakable resemblance to both himself and Hilda Arde.
And that very day, Flint realized he was not the only one searching for the child’s location.
The mansion came under attack.
Servants’ screams echoed throughout the residence.
Fortunately, the infant was in Flint’s arms at that moment.
A woman who appeared to be a nursemaid burst into the nursery first. But she was immediately cut down by assassins’ blades that came crashing in behind her.
Flint clutched the infant and escaped through the window.
“I intended to take you to the Empire then and hide you there.”
But bringing Luderne to the Imperial Palace would not have been enough to shield him from the countless schemes and assassination attempts. And at that time, there were precious few he could trust to protect Luderne.
As he wrestled with this dilemma, he encountered Hilda Arde at the border—her sword pointed directly at him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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